“I kept creating art wherever I was staying. (…) Creating was my only anchor.”
This week, Esther Didden is visiting Jan Wattjes at his home and workplace in The Hague.
In 2011, he graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He got off to a great start right away; his paintings stood out. Galleries sought him out, he was nominated for the Royal Painting Prize, and he appeared on the highly rated television show *De Nieuwe Rembrandt*. Things were going very well—until his personal life fell apart. He lost his home and spent four years staying with friends and family. It was a dark period marked by debt and reliance on the food bank. All the while, he kept creating. He’s now back on track, but the fear of, as he puts it, “screwing it up again” is still there.
“Making do with what you have is also a form of freedom.”
English 
Dutch